Hope
by AstridWinchester
Summary: Sam and Dean have a discussion with Arsenic


_**A/N: Also not part of either story previously posted :) All I own is Arsenic. Sam & Dean belong to Eric Kripke**_

Arsenic let out a sigh as she roused from sleep and sat up, running a hand over her face and through her hair. She should have known that sleep would be futile and fraught with the usual nightmares. How typical - and pathetic - was it that not only was she cursed by her very existence but by the gods themselves?

She dressed quickly and grabbed her jacket, intending to head to the nearest bar to wash away the dreams and the memories they stirred. Frankly she could have done with a different sort of liquid but the day had just started and she wasn't in the right mind-set to hunt. So drinking would have to do. It didn't take long to find a bar or charm a drink out of the bartender and she scanned the crowd absently, tapping her nails on the wood of the counter. Now all she needed was adequate company and entertainment.

She heard the two heartbeats as they approached and swung her gaze casually to her left to see the two hunters walking toward her and groaned. _Wonderful_, her day was about to get worse. True, she'd had a bonding moment with the youngest the other day but he also hadn't been aware of what she was. No doubt big brother had filled him in though, if the way he watched her was any indication. His expression was a mixture of curiosity and distrust, as if he couldn't quite figure out why she'd been nice to him.

"Well if it isn't Sam and his annoying shadow," she drawled and signaled the barkeep with two fingers. "What can I do you for, darlings?"

"You can step outside and we can finish what we started, bitch," Dean bristled and she tsked at him.

"Now what did I say about watching your mouth, boy?" She shook her head with an amused half-smile. "If you really think I'm going to do anything you say, then you're a lot dumber than I originally thought." She turned to Sam and said in a warmer tone, "hello Sam."

If possible, Dean got even angrier and placed himself between her and the younger male and she smirked. "Don't talk to her Sam," he growled to his brother who pursed his lips and eyed her over Dean's shoulder.

"Aw but we had such a nice conversation yesterday," she replied with laughter evident in her voice. "Didn't we love?" Sam looked as if he was about to answer but Dean cut him off with a glare and her smile widened. "Why don't you relax and have a drink? My treat."

Dean's eyes narrowed on her. "What's your angle?"

"Angle?" she repeated and cocked her head to the side. The bartender set two beers down in front of her and she slid them over to the two hunters. "Who said I had one?" Wagging her eyebrows, she rose from her seat and moved to go but was stopped again by the elder Winchester. "I'm not someone you want to bother or annoy, Dean. It won't end well for you," she warned smoothly.

"You're not going anywhere sweetheart," he tossed back arrogantly. Lifting his jacket to show her his gun and a stake, he scowled at the amusement he saw. "Tonight's your last drink."

"Dean, Dean, Dean," she sighed and shook her head. "If I was easy to kill, do you really think I'd be here talking to you?" Her attention shifted to regard Sam who was watching the scene before him. She could tell that he was still trying to figure her out but that neither would be able to which was exactly how she liked it. "Furthermore, don't you think I'd have hurt you or Sam if I had intentions of it? I don't, so you can rest assured that you're safe."

"And I'm supposed to trust the word of a demon?"

"I never said _that_, darling," she snapped and her tone dropped a few degrees colder. "Just that I don't plan on killing or harming either of you. Now…if you don't mind, I'd like to leave now." Forcing her way past him to the door, she noticed that both followed her and she sighed again once they stepped into the alley. "Do we have to do this?"

Sam seemed to be having second thoughts and pulled his brother's arm when Dean was about to attack, hissing his name. The two went a short distance away and she listened to their hushed conversation, feigning disinterest. She could have easily disappeared or knocked the pair of them out if she wanted to but she didn't. Brawling with the hunters wasn't really something she felt like doing that night and if she stuck around, perhaps they would realize that she meant it when she said that; unless it was in self-defense anyway.

"Why didn't you?" Sam addressed her finally, ignoring his brother's protest and moving closer to her. His focus on her intense, body coiled in anticipation. "You could have bitten me at any time yet you stayed to have a drink with me and talk. Why?"

"You ask a lot of questions," she muttered and exhaled a breath. "You're not wrong. You want the truth?" He nodded and she shrugged. "I wasn't in the mood to fight with a hunter, still not actually. I have no reason to want either of you dead, and I'd already fed on a blood bag from the blood bank earlier in the day. I don't kill people unless they try to kill me first."

Dean scoffed but they paid him no mind, staring at each other. "I don't believe you," he argued and Sam's jaw clenched in annoyance at his brother. Dean withdrew a knife from his belt and Arsenic observed as he drew it across his forearm, blood welling from the wound. The hunter was daring her to drink it and she saw that for what it was.

Hunger stirred in her at the blood but she'd had several centuries of learning to control it to let it overwhelm her. She was not some fledgling vampire; she had been turned over 400 years ago, trained by an Original, and rehabilitated by Diablos. Very slowly she walked toward him, not missing the way Sam tensed and the smug triumph on Dean's face. When she was an inch away, she pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and tossed it in his face.

"You're bleeding, might want to clean that before it gets infected," she said calmly and added a wink just to bug him. The surprise on his face was priceless, replaced with confusion and on Sam's was pure speculation. Clearly both were rethinking her motives but since she didn't plan to share those, it hardly mattered.

Dean fell silent then and exchanged a look with his brother, wrapping the cloth around the wound. It wasn't the first time they'd come across vampires who claimed not to hunt humans, but she was still a demon. "What are you doing here in town?" Sam asked.

"I live here," she answered and went back to where she'd been, leaning on the wall casually. "Most of the time at least. Whenever I'm not being chased by _your_ kind, anyway." The last came out as a growl and Dean smirked.

"And why would they do that?" He pretended to think about it. "Because you're a demon?"

"And you think that means I should be killed, is that right?" Dean didn't answer that time but he didn't need to. She knew his type, had come across them countless times over the centuries. He was one of the black and white hunters, with a close-minded view that nothing could change. Demons were monsters that were only capable of slaughter; no if, ands, or buts about it. Sam though was silent again, and she wondered if he was more inclined to believe her to not be as much a threat. "You, Dean, are the very definition of why I hate hunters. Prejudiced, the lot of you."

A blur of motion was the only sign that she'd moved before she had Sam against the wall, one hand on his throat. Her gaze was fixed on Dean, her grip unyielding. "If I wanted to, I could kill you two without laying a hand on you. For your information, I'm not the same vampire I used to be but I don't have to justify myself to the likes of _you_."

Her action of grabbing Sam made Dean draw the stake and she set it aflame, smirking when he dropped it, swearing. He went for his gun next but he hesitated, not wanting to hit his brother by accident. Arsenic turned back to Sam, forgetting the elder Winchester momentarily at the feel of a pulse beneath her fingertips. The two studied each other for several seconds, all three in some sort of holding pattern.

Dean was certain that she was about to bite Sam and was considering how best to put her out of commission. Sam was not so convinced. In his mind he was going over the conversation he'd had with the demon/vampire and the way she'd acted when Dean cut his arm. She hadn't even flinched like he'd expected, and despite the fact that she was pinning him to the wall, she had yet to actually _hurt_ him. Even her grip on him confused him. It was hard enough to keep him from getting away, yet loose enough to allow him to breathe.

He was starting to believe that she was sincere in her statement that she didn't wish them harm and was merely making a point when her hand on his neck was removed. Dean didn't lower his weapon or take his eyes off the vampire, not that she took that into account. Arsenic saw that Sam understood and she inclined her head to him then walked away. "Have a nice night boys," she said.

The gun fired and she whirled to see that Sam had knocked Dean's arm away, making his shot go wide. About to change her mind and retaliate, Sam looked over at her. "Go," he ordered and Dean gaped at his brother. Not needing to be told twice, she flashed out and to the roof above them to listen. She couldn't very well go home if she still had to worry about Dean being on her ass. Besides…she wanted to know why Sam had intervened.

"What the hell was that?" Dean barked at his brother.

"Leave it alone, Dean. She told the truth and let us go." Sam's sigh made her eyebrows raise. "If she was going to kill us, she'd have done it."

There was a curse and the sound of a thud as Dean kicked at something. "Damnit Sam! How can you trust another demon? Remember Ruby?"

Her interest piqued, Arsenic leaned out over the awning to watch the men argue. It seemed that her initial assessment about Sam had been correct. He was more open-minded, if he'd trusted a demon once before he'd have to be. It made sense now why he'd been more willing to listen than Dean was.

"Of course I remember Ruby," Sam was saying, "but you didn't see what I did when I looked at her. For whatever reason, she had the chance to kill me twice and she didn't. Maybe she's not so bad. Hell Dean, she could have gone after you for shooting her but she left. Doesn't that tell you anything?"

"Yeah," came the grumbled reply, "that she's probably just biding her time." Another sigh and glare later, Sam shook his head then started walking to the car.

"Can we just go back to the motel please?"

Dean wanted to fight some more but held his tongue, then rethought the night. "You go on ahead, I need a drink."

Sam took off in the direction of what she assumed to be the motel and Dean went back into the bar and she flashed down to join Sam, walking a little behind him.

"I'm impressed," she commented and he turned his head to glance at her as she caught up. "I thought all you hunters were alike."

"I'm not Dean, I know that not all demons are the same," he answered and she slipped her hands into her pockets. "Were you eavesdropping the whole time?" She grinned in reply and he stopped, his arm darting out to wrap around her elbow. "Why? What do you want with me and my brother?"

Arsenic caught her bottom lip between her teeth and tugged her arm out of his grasp but didn't reply right away. Why _had_ she stayed? Curiosity mainly, along with some deep seated desire that she hadn't identified until right then. "I wanted to see something," she admitted quietly. "Long ago hunters took something precious from me. In the process, it created a war between me and them that hasn't stopped."

Hazel eyes held green as they appraised each other, searching for answers. "What did you want to see?" he asked. What had they taken from her? He didn't voice the second query, certain that she wouldn't tell him.

"If I was wrong in my assumption that you would believe that I'm as evil as the rest have thought me to be." The words were spoken softly and her head tilted again then she began walking once more, him following her not long after. "It appears that I was."

"No one has ever given you the benefit of the doubt?"

A second time that night she was quiet for so long that he almost thought she wouldn't answer until she shook her head. "600 years and you were the first, Sam Winchester." By then they'd reached his motel door and the vampire allowed a smile to grace her features. "Thanks for that. Maybe there's hope for me after all, I'd nearly given up on it."

Sam stared at her, speechless. He noticed her eyes dropped to his mouth and that her smile seemed to make her softer, kinder. Not giving himself a chance to think about it, one of his fingers hooked in the belt loop of her jeans and he tugged her to him. Lifting her chin, he slanted his lips across hers in a kiss.

At first she was stunned by the bold move and her hands planted themselves on his chest as if to push him away, which she was, but she got lost in the moment. It was filled with more fire than she'd expected to find, and her response was to explore it by deepening the kiss, swiping her tongue along his lip to request entrance. Emboldened by the fact that she was kissing him back, it was Sam who pushed her against the door, his hands cradling her jaw as their tongues battled.

Neither was sure how long they spent locked in that embrace, time ceased to have any meaning. Eventually he drew back and toyed with one of her curls, then took a full step away from her to let her retreat if she wanted to. Arsenic gazed up at Sam and smiled, kissed him one more time before flashing away, leaving him leaning on his door and breathless.

Sam wasn't sure what had possessed him to kiss her, and since she didn't ask, he didn't dwell on the subject. Even if they never met again, that one night and that kiss had changed things for both of them. Once alone in her apartment with her fingertips pressed to her mouth, Arsenic replayed the moment in her mind, thinking that she might have been right - maybe there _was_ hope.


End file.
